Magnetic means and carriers for envelopes to facilitate sorting mail as to destinations



Jan. 9, 1962 J w LUCAS MAGNETIC MEANS AND CARI RIENS FOR ENVELOPES TO FACILITATE SORTING MAIL AS TO DESTINATIONS Filed May 22, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR.

JOHN H 106/76 BY Y Jan. 9, 1962 J. w. LUCAS 3,016,125

I MAGNETIC MEANS AND CARRIERS FOR ENVELOPES TO FACILITATE SORTING MAIL AS TO DESTINATIONS Filed May 22, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 llll llll

- INVENTOR.

JOAA/ 14 40645 1077 OQ/V' 4 United States Patent 3,016,125 MAGNETIC MEANS AND CARRIERS FOR ENVEL- OPES T0 FACILITATE SORTING MAIL AS TO DESTINATIONS John W. Lucas, 1857 Windsor Road, San Marino, Calif. Filed May 22, 1959, Ser. No. 815,162 7 Claims. (Cl. 19838) This invention concerns mailing a series of envelopes that. have been addressed individually and are to be forwarded by mail to different destinations respectively, by the Post Oflice Department, corresponding to the destination named in the addresses on the envelopes.

These envelopes are intended to be fed into a machine capable of sorting the envelopes as to their individual destinations. A machine for accomplishing this purpose has been invented and in its mode of operation, the envelopes are placed in a hopper that has no bottom, and in which a stack of envelopes are placed.

In the operation of the said machine a series of plates for carrying the envelopes individually, is moved by the machine in succession under the bottomless hopper, and in order to transfer the bottom envelope of the stack in the hopper, onto the carrier plate when located beneath the stack of envelopes in the hopper, a pneumatic suction head of rubber or similar flexible material was applied to the bottom face of the carrier plate, while located under the hopper; as each carrier plate is provided with numerous perforations leading from its upper face to its lower face, the application of the suction head to the underside of the stack of envelopes causes the bottom envelope to adhere to the upper face of the carrier plate.

The envelope that has been transferred to the upper face of each carrier plate remains there by reason of the fact that both faces of the envelope carrier have bands of contact-sensitive material such as latex. This latex material being pressed against the upper face of the carrier plate adheres to the plate, which, then in the operation of the machine, passes over a series of hoppers with the carrier plates in an inverted position, and as each carrier plate passes over a hopper corresponding to the distinctive insigniaon the envelope, descends automatically onto the upper face of the carrier plate and delivers a blast of compressed air through the perforations in the plate which blows off the envelope and deposits it in its proper hopper.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an effective and simple alternate means for causing the adherence of the bottom envelope from the feed hopper onto each carrier plate as it passes under the feed hopper.

Cams carried by the forward ends of the carrier plates I cooperate with the rollers associated with the stems of the blower heads in such a way that the said rollers determine the operation of the blower heads to accomplish this the rollers and cams are distinctively placed to correspond with a certain destination-hopper above which they are located.

In accordance with the present invention, several magnetic elements carried by the envelopes and preferably two such elements, are located in a distinctive position with respect to each other, and have distinctive individual positions on the envelopes, cooperating with other mechanism that is controlled thereby, can effect the removal of the envelopes individually when located over the hopper assigned to the destination named in the address on the envelope.

Further objects of the invention will be evident from a careful reading of the instant specification and study of the accompanying drawing.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combinamon feed hopper. onto each carrier plate as it passes under tions of parts to be described hereinafter, all of which "ice contribute to produce an efficient magnetic means and carriers for envelopes to facilitate sorting mail as to destinations. i

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in the following specification, While the broad scope of the invention is pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a plan of a carrier plate such as referred to hereinabove, that is to say, it is a metallic plate, preferably steel that has been magnetized to enable it to attract and hold envelopes constructed in accordance with this specification. In this view, a dotted rectangle indicates an area in the body of the plate which is occupied by a great number of perforations, the functions of which will be described hereinafter.

FIGURE 2 is a plan of the forward face of an envelope embodying my invention and illustrating the means I may employ to enable an envelope to secure itself to one of the magnetized carrier plates when it passes the supply hopper holding a stack of envelopes which are to be secured one at a time, in succession to the upper faces of carrier plates that will be moved in a path passing under a stack of envelopes held in a supply hopper. In this embodiment of the invention, both faces of the envelopes are provided with embossed metallized areas or minute metallic discs, capable of being attracted by the magnetic carrier plates to attach the envelopes to the same.

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2, but illustrating the means I prefer to employ, rather than the means illustrated in FIGURE 2. In other words, the means illustrated in FIGURE 3 is in the form of embossed metallized lines or bands employed to encircle the envelope at two spaced apart points, so that this magnetic element is disposed in a continuous: line on both faces of the envelope. By using two of these magnetic lines for attracting the envelope to the magnetized plate, the security of the attachment is greatly enhanced; and in addition to that the relation of these magnetic bands or stripes to each other and their actual position on the envelope, enable them to operate as distinctive insignia cor responding to a certain destination that the envelopes respectively areintended for; and they also adapt the envelopes for cooperating with electronic means for effecting the discharge of the diiferent envelopes respectively into hoppers that correspond to the diiferent cities for which the envelopes must be assorted.

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary view and shows the detail of perforation in a large area of a carrier plate, that adapts it to cooperate'with pneumatic means for facilitating the transferring of the envelopes from their comthe same; and they also function to assist in the removal of the envelopes from the carrier platesas they pass the hoppers corresponding to their separate destinations.

FIGURE 5 is an end view of an envelope shown as though lying face-down on a horizontal surface} This view shows the flap of the envelope in a partially raised position, and also shows howthe bands or metallized stripes pass continuously across both faces of the envelope, including the rear face of the flap that constitutes a portion of the paper that helps .to complete the rear sheet of the envelope.

FIGURE 6 is a side elevation illustrating a unit mechanism of the apparatus, which functions to effect the discharge of the envelope from theunder side of the carrier plate when the envelope is passing the hopper which is to receive envelopes for a certain designated destination.

FIGURE 7 is a view showing a vertical section through the supply hopper for the envelopes, and illustrates the pneumatic means that cooperates with the carrier plates to effect the transfer of the bottom envelope from the bottomless envelope hopper, onto the upper face of the carrier-plate that is located at the moment under this hopper.

Referring more particularly to the parts, FIGURE 1 illustrates a carrier plate 1, the body portion of which hasthe same dimensions as a standard size long envelope such as used in correspondence. In this instance, envelopes of any desired width and length can be used.

At its end the body is provided with extensions 2, 2 which are provided with a plurality of drilled holes 3 spaced apart so as to enable these carrier plates to be mounted on two parallel chains that constitute an endless conveyor for moving the carrier plates in succession past a bottomless hopper, such as illustrated in FIGURE 7; at this point the bottom envelope in the hopper is delivered onto the carrier plate, which is at that moment under this hopper.

In FIGURE 1 the rectangular dot-and-dash lines 4 indicate an area of this plate that is occupied by a great number of small drilled holes 5, such as are illustrated in the detail view, FIGURE 4. These small holes are in the present instance, disposed in parallel rows and spaced equidistant from each other in-each row. They are preferably of the order of one sixty-fourth of an inch, and they extend completely through the thickness of the plate to enable them to operate as ducts, as indicated in F1 URE 7, to cooperate with a suction-head at which a partial vacuum is developed through a pipe connection as will be presently described. They also function so as to cooperate with a pneumatic blower-head as indicated in FIGURE 6, to enable the envelopes to be blown off of the lower face of the carrier plate which is in an inverted position as compared with its position in which it is indicated in FIGURE 7. The inverted position is due to the fact that when being blown off, the carrier plates are in the upper run of the conveyor.

Referring to FIGURE 2, which illustrates one of the series of carrier plates, that moves past the hopper shown in FIGURE 7, and past the compressed air blower shown in FIGURE 6, it should be said that in accordance with my invention I provide magnetic means which is illustrated in FIGURE 2. This means may comprise a plurality of metallized small spots or buttons 6 which include magnetic material, for example, metallized embossed spots on the two outer faces of the envelope 7.

It should be understood, also that in practicing the invention, carrier plates 1 are magnetized so that if the surface of one of these'carrier plates is brought into intimate contact with such an envelope just as described, the magnetized buttons or spots 6 will be attracted by the mag netic carrier plate and will attach the envelope to the surface of the same.

In FIGURE 3 I illustrate a form of metallized contacts that are composed of thin and narrow tape that is metallized on its outer surface so that it will be attracted to any of the magnetized carrier plates.

The tape that I prefer to employ is preferably coated on its inner face with latex that has been treated by the well-known process that renders it pressure-sensitive, that is to say, this tape 8 attaches itself to the envelope merely by being pressed against the envelope. The use of this tape illustrated in FIGURE 3 has many advantages, one of which is that it lends itself to the operation of wrapping the tape around the envelopes by machinery.

In applying the tape around the envelope the tape should be long enough to completely encircle the envelope to insure the continuous contact between the tape and the flexible brush that may be used in an electronic construction to maintain a circuit on a portion of the tape as a conductor.

It should be understood that the two bands 8 and 3a, of metallized tape as shown in FIGURE 3, have a relative position with respect to each other that is distinctive to a certain city, to which the envelopes are addressed;

and this enables them to function as distinctive indicia inan electronic apparatus for handling and sorting these envelopes. As an example of how these metallized bands perform their function, we can consider that the distance apart of the bands 8 and 8a corresponds to a certain city, for example, New York, as a destination for mail being posted in a western city. Using the band 8 as a basic contact, another band 8b may be substituted for the band 8a to represent the city of Philadelphia, and this band is only a fraction of an inch removed from the band 8a.

And by employing a band 8c removed very slightly from the band 8b, the contact band 8c may be used to produce distinctive indicia for Harrisburg, Pa., or any other city that may be desired. In other words, the distance between the bands and the capability of shifting these bands relatively to each other, for slight changes in the distance between them, enables groups of envelopes to be made that are distinctive of many cities without making any changes in the actual location of the basic band.

Furthermore, as the bands '81:, 8b, and 8c, for example, may determine the envelopes for a great number of cities, the basic band 8 may be shifted toward or away from the location of the bands 8a, 8b, 80, etc., thereby enabling another large group of cities to be represented by envelopes in which the location of the band 8 is slightly removed from its position as shown in FIGURE 3.

The magnetic quality of bands such as described, that extend transversely as they do, across the carrier plates, enables them to function as means for transferring them from a supply hopper 9 in an electronic mail sorting machine. In that case, a construction such as shown in FIGURE 7, is employed. In that figure, a carrier plate 1a is shown, positioned so that it operates as a temporary bottom for the bottomless supply hopper 9.

This hopper is disposed just above the upper run of the endless conveyor, and under. this hopper there is located a suction-head 10, which passes transversely with respect to the stack 11 of envelopes that fit neatly into the hopper.

It should be understood that the scale of this view, FIGURE 7, is approximately half size, and that the envelopes shown therein extend transversely to the direction in which the upper run of the conveyor advances, as indicated by the arrow in FIGURE 7. The suction-head 10 is of tubular form and its longitudinal axisextends transversely to the direction of advance of the carrier plate.

This tubular suction-head is preferably a casting with a flat upper face that is substantially in contact with the bottom face 12 of the plate la, as it moves into position under the stack 11. The fiat face of the suctionhead has a plurality of ports 13 that communicate with the small drilled orifices 5 of the carrier plate, thereby educting any air that lies between the upper face of the plate In, and the lowest envelope 11a in the stack. When this happens, the atmospheric pressure of the air in the stack 11 forces the stack downwardly, and presses the lowest envelope 11b intimately against the plate la, and this enables the bottom envelope to attach itself by magnetic force to the carrier plate In.

A pipe connection 14 leads from the suction-head 10 to a vacuum chamber, preferably maintained under a relatively high vacuum; and in the machine that sorts the mail, an automatic timing device opens up a valve in the pipe 14 that leads to the vacuum drum or tank.

The two rollers 15 shown in FIGURE 7, that support the upper run of the conveyor chains (not illustrated), do not interfere with the operation just described, of transferring the lowest envelope 11a from the supply hopper 9, because these rollers are located out of line with the endless chain referred to, and are aligned where they can contact the outer surface of the end portions 2 of the plate 1, shown in FIGURE 1, and also the inner portions of said extensions 2, if necessary, where the inner ends of the extensions 2 have their junction 6 with the body portion 1 of the carrier plates.

Referring now to FIGURE 6, the pneumatic mechanism for automatically blowing off the envelope that is carried on the under side of the carrier plate 10, as indicated in FIGURE 6,. includes a transversely disposed shaft bar 17, the ends of which are'supported on bearing brackets 18, mohntedon a part of the framing of the apparatus; this shaft 17 carries an arm 19 rigidly that extends off to one side, and this arm 19 has a swivel connection 20 that supports a tubular stem 21, the upper end of which is connected to a-hose 22 leading from a compressed-air reservoir (not illustrated).

When the plate 10 is located under the soft cushiontype blower-head 23 composed of rubber or plastic, an arm 24 depending from the shaft 17 will be pushed up wardly by a cam 25 connected to the upper face of the plate 10. This will occur when it strikes a roller 26 pivoted in a forked bracket 27 on the-end of the depending arm 24.

When the roller 26 rolls up on the hump 28 of the cam, the tubular stem 21, will be pushed downwardly so that its compressible body 23 will be pushed down to seat its lip 29 on the upper face of the plate 10, and when this occures the tip 36 of a valve stem 31 will engage the plate and open an air valve (not shown) but located in the tubular valve body 32, whereupon the rush of air down the tubular arm 21 will blow through the holes and dislodge the envelope 7a. It will fall into the proper hopper, the upper end 33 of which is located just below this pneumatic pressure-head, the cam 25 of which is located in the proper position to contact the roller 26 and actuate the stem 24.

A slight modification of this invention can be used in practice, if desired, which is to employ a plurality of more than two conductive bands such as the bands 8, 8a, etc., and use the extra bands for closing circuits not concerned with circuits that can be closed through the two bands as illustrated herein.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent: 5 I I 1. As a new article of manufacture, an envelopeto cooperate with a series of magnetized plates individually to sort them into different groups for forwarding to different destinations respectively, by means of magnetized steel plates to function as a carrier for the same, said envelopes having two lines of metallic elements extending transversely across the face thereof, and out'of contact with each other, said metallic elements operating to adhere to, and attach the envelope to the said magnetized carrier plates individually, by the magnetic attraction of said magnetized plates; the distance between said laterally extending metallic elements and their individual location on said envelopes being distinctive to, and corresponding to, the destinations of said envelopes.

2. A series of envelopes adapted to be addressed individually to difierent destinations respectively, according to claim 1, in which the said metallic elements comprise two bands extending continuously across the forward faces of said envelopes;

3. A series of envelopes adapted tobe addressed inw dividually to different destinations respectively, according to claim 1, in which the said metallic elements comprise a series of metallic spots spaced apart from each other'in spaced apart lines extending across the said envelopes.

4. A series of envelopes adapted to be addressed individually to different destinations respectively, according to claim 1, in combination with magnetized carrier plates, said envelopes adapted to be moved onto the said carrier plates, and in which the said carrier plates are provided with groups of small perforations enabling suction to be applied to the same on the side of the carrier plates remote from the envelopes to effect magnetic contact and adhesion between the magnetized carrier plates and the magnetic element.

5. A series of envelopes adapted to be addressed individually to different destinations respectively, according to claim 1, in combination with magnetized carrier plates, said envelopes adapted to be moved onto the said carrier plates, and in which the said carrier plates are provided with groups of small perforations enabling suction to be applied to the same on the side of the carrier plates remote from the envelopes to get into magnetic contact with the magnetized carrier plates; said perforations enabling a blast of compressed air that is in line with the said magnetized element to be delivered through said perforations against the said magnetized elements to dislodge the said envelopes from their carrier plates over hoppers corresponding respectively to the destinations of said envelopes. t V

6. The combination of a plurality of envelopes to be forwarded to different destinations, each of said envelopes having several transverse parallel bands presenting conductive metallic, magnetic material secured on their outer faces, including a pair of said parallel bands on each envelope spaced apart from each other a specific distinctive distance, the individuals of said pairs of bands disposed at specific distinctive points respectively on the envelope, thereby enabling said pair of bands to function as distinctive indicia, corresponding respectively to the different destinations to which the envelopes are to be mailed; and magnetized metallic carrier plates for carrying the envelopes to which said envelopes adhere respectively by the magnetic attraction to said bands.

7. An envelope having a pair of parallel magnetic metallic elements spaced apart from each other, a distance distinctive to the destination named in the address borne by said envelope, in combination with a magnetized metallic carrier plate for the envelope, the magnetic force whereof attracts and holds the said envelope on the said plate, and means corresponding to the said distance be tween the said magnetic elements for elfecting the dislodging of the envelope from the carrier plate.

,. References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,697,514 ,;Stahl Q. Dec. 21, 1954.1 

